
Alessandro Stefana - Poste E Telegrafi [Important Records - 2007]Alessandro Stefana’s debut album Poste E Telegrafi offers up seven mainly guitar based cinematic and panoramic moodscapes, with surprising & creative avant-garde touches. Mixing together traces of the blues, ambience, flimatic themes- with gamelan percussion, quirky electronic elements and an array of other instrumental desert colours with some help from the likes of Mark Ribot & Leo Abrahams. I can’t really recall enjoying a guitarist instrumental album this much in a long time, I think the last thing that had similar effect was Leo Abraham’s last full length, but this is certainly a different kettle of fish to that. The thing is there’s always something interesting and unexpected on offer in every track, as he weaves in; runway rhythms, other instruments at strange angles, jarring noise elements and general creative and imaginative use of sound. On top of it all he’s a damn fine emotional charged guitarist, who really makes his instrument weep some beautiful singed,soulful and passionate sounds. The only downside is it runs a bit short at just over half an hour, but hell it’s better to have a near seamless 30 minute run, than drag out for another half an hour low-grade material. To find out more, hear samples and buy direct drop in here.      Roger Batty
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